It should be understood in the discussion that follow that references to uncontaminated cleaning liquid means liquid which in the course of use will become contaminated to some degree. It should also be understood that the cleaning liquid referred to in this disclosure is frequently water combined with a chemical cleaning agent. However, such is not considered limiting and the cleaning liquid maybe water, detergent, or a combination of any chemical cleaning agent and water. Also the term water will mean water mixed with detergent or just water.
It typically takes approximately three to five sections of clean liquid in a bucket to properly clean the floors in a house and even more than five sections for commercial buildings or large homes. Water in the mop bucket turns dirty right after the first section of a floor is mopped because the used mop is submerged in the bucket after each section of a floor is mopped. When the user of a mop cleans the first section of the floor they then stick the dirty mop in the bucket of clean water which then contaminates the water. The water gets dirtier and dirtier as each section of a floor is mopped. Thus, what is considered cleaning a floor is in reality merely spreading dirty water around on the floor.
Furthermore, certain mops require the use of a wringer. A wringer sits on top of the bucket at the back part of the bucket. It is used to squeeze the excess water out of the mop after the mop is submerged in the bucket of water. The excess water is squeezed out prior to the user mopping a section of the floor. Typically after the user of a mop that requires the use of a wringer, mops a section of a floor they will submerge the now dirty mop in the bucket of water which contaminates the water. Then they will pull the mop out of the bucket and squeeze the excess dirty water from the mop through the wringer. The wringer, which sits on top of the bucket, allows the dirty water from the mop to be squeezed right back in the bucket of water. Each time the user submerges the mop in the bucket the water gets dirtier and dirtier and this dirty water is used to mop further sections of the floor. There are mop buckets out there that have a separate section to hold the excess water from a wringer. The problem with that type of mop bucket is that once the user of a mop cleans a section of the floor, the user then sticks the now dirty mop in the bucket of water which then turns the water dirty. The user then lifts the mop out of the dirty water and puts the mop through the wringer. As such, that section in the bucket that holds the water from the mop also has dirty water. So both sections in the bucket have dirty water immediately after mopping the first section of a floor. The user then uses dirty water to mop further sections of the floor and continues to contaminate the water every time they submerge the dirty mop in the dirty water.
There is a mop bucket on the market with two sections. One is to hold dirty water and the other to hold clean water. The problem with that is for the reasons mentioned earlier. Once someone mops the first section of a floor the dirty mop gets submerged in one of the sections of the bucket which turns the water dirty. If the user continues to submerge the mop in the dirty water after mopping the second section of the floor they will pull the mop out of the dirty water and contaminate the clean section of the bucket when they submerge the mop in the clean water. The clean section of the bucket will quickly get contaminated and get more and more contaminated as each section of the floor is mopped. If the user never uses the clean section of the bucket they might as well have a one section bucket and if they use the clean section it will quickly get contaminated.
The present invention is designed to overcome all of the above problems.